New peer-reviewed research on Expat Harem is published
My book is 20 years old and currently undergoing a "renaissance" in academic circles. It looks to remain the gold standard for Turkish expat memoirs.
It’s always a thrill to learn that someone has spent time with something I created, let alone adding it to the body of their own scholarship with a cool tag like #imagology.
I just noticed a new academic research article on the anthology I co-edited more than twenty years ago. A peer-reviewed paper Translating Türkiye’s women in a transnational context: the case of Tales from the Expat Harem by Hilal Erkazanci Durmus, an Associate Professor of Translation Studies at Hacettepe University in Ankara, has been published in the Translation Studies Journal this spring, March 2026.
Her article examines Tales from the Expat Harem from a translation studies perspective, as a cultural product moving within a social network.
Professor Durmus examines the book through the lens of translation sociology, an investigation into translation as a social practice. It looks at the “agents" involved—translators and editors acting as active mediators and cross-cultural agents—and how our choices were shaped by the institutions, publishing demands, and power dynamics of the time.
The study examines how the authors "translate" Turkish culture and women’s roles for a global audience.
Her research explores the social, economic, and political factors that influence how stories like these are produced, distributed, and received. It’s a deep dive into how translations impact the global circulation of ideas, especially when moving between major languages and cultures.
Professor Durmus teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on translation sociology and discourse, and her paper is tagged with some fascinating identifiers: cultural translation, feminist translation, imagology, migrant women (the "expats," in academic terms), and Türkiye.
My international experience
I have lived and worked in numerous American cities and other countries, gaining firsthand insights into various cultural and social norms. As an expatriate in Muslim-majority countries in Southeast Asia and the Near East, I learned to read the fine print of each culture. My work included translating Turkish culture on live television for five million Americans and publishing a stereotype-busting book about Turkey. These international experiences enhanced my adaptability and cultural competence, allowing me to navigate diverse environments effectively. They also reinforced my understanding of global interconnectedness and the importance of cultural diplomacy.
Crazy Rich Asians & the impact of my work: I helped save an architectural gem in Southeast Asia
Remembering the time when I conceived, pitched, wrote, sold, published a three page story in a top newsweekly magazine out of Hong Kong that highlighted a historical building at risk from nearby development to 93,000 elite members of government, business and the arts.
The article had impact.
The year after the article was published, the building won a newly created UNESCO Heritage Award.
To promote the conservation of the greatest diversity of the region’s built heritage, in the year 2000 UNESCO inaugurated the annual Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation, a program designed to respond to the question: “Within the realities of contemporary, fast-track development, what of the built heritage do Asians value and want to preserve from the past to inform the region’s place in the global future?”
quoted from TheSiamSociety.org Lessons from the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation: International Best Practices in Thailand
Richard Engelhardt, Montira Horayangura Unakul and Julia Davies
In 2018 you saw this historic property in the film Crazy Rich Asians, which used it as a setting.
You know it from Crazy Rich Asians. I championed its story in 1998.
A good moment for the right vanity press/publishing service
Publishing friends, authors, business women, entrepreneurs: what do you think of this new initiative from Worth Media?
A new pipeline to publishing for their subject-matter expert members to help build and further their careers,
an opportunity for people who traditionally have a harder time getting published or recognized,
to be released through an imprint/house for an established publisher (Simon & Schuster),
and author retains the rights.
My first thought? Vanity press. In a downmarket for publishing.
And then, well, okay. It's a good business opportunity to provide publishing services direct to an underserved information-rich community. And, then, hey maybe better than OK. For everyone involved, including the readers of these books. Read about it here.
TBT, panelist at Exceptional Women In Publishing Conference
Check out Exceptional Women In Publishing, a non-profit org to educate, empower and support women in publishing and to educate, empower and support women and girls through the power of publishing.
